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SPEAKING of TONGUES

I Cor. 14

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I want to make it crystal
clear that our purpose tonite is not in any way to impune, insult, or attack
any brother or sister in Christ.
Any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine!

And so, w/ no malice, no
anger, and no hatred in my heart toward anyone, we approach a sticky topic
in a mature way.We can approach
this subject doctrinally, Biblically, w/out attacking anyone’s character or
integrity.This is not
personal…this is Bible.I only
ask you to do what I do in such things and keep an open mind.Don't be guilty of being one of those people whose goal is to make
sure they 'have always been right.'Make it your goal to make sure you ARE right.If nothing else, you'll come to understand why we believe what we
believe.

Probably everyone in this
room knows someone, or even deeply loves someone, as I do, who is a believer
in the tongues movement, or at least attends a church that would be a part
of that belief.I have some
family, and some dear friends who would disagree w/ everything I will say
tonite…and yet, my first allegiance has got to be to the Word of God.

It is impossible, and it
would be unfair, to try to generalize all tongues-speakers into one
category.You cannot lump them
all into one basket.

For instance, the AOG
church does believe in the basic, essential doctrines of the faith:
Bible/Trinity/deity/virgin birth/substitutionary death/resurrection/2nd
coming/salvation by grace thru faith/they do not teach tongues to be
necessary for salvation…or even an essential evidence that you’re saved.
Now, we would disagree on a secondary level, about a non-essential doctrine
of the modern practice of speaking in tongues.And yet, I can call them brother and sister w/out
reservation…remember, the main thing…

This is an important
distinction to make, because there are several Pentecostal groups like
United Pentecost, and many others, that teach tongues to be not just a
gift/added blessing, but an added requirement for salvation, along w/ water
baptism.Some of these groups
deny the doctrine of the trinity, and promote a works system of
salvation…and that they’re the only ones that will be in heaven…that always
has been, and always will be the mark of a cult!

Joke—[Some Baptists believe
in what is called the Baptist bride theory]

St. Peter shows a new
arrival in heaven around/old-time Presbyterian…distinguished and dignified /
Charismatics whooping and hollering / shhhhh!, these are the Baptists, they
think they’re the only ones here!

Yes, there’s a big
difference between different groups of tongues speakers.

We don’t question anyone’s
sincerity tonite.Certainly you
can see the sincerity on their faces…they are truly sincere.Their love and devotion for Jesus is very real…but sincerity is not
the test of doctrine…it’s possible to be sincere and be sincerely wrong.

I would not question that
many of their experiences are real, and that not all charismatic experiences
you hear about are psycho-somatic in nature…but experience is not the test
of doctrine.We must always line
our experiences up beside the Word to see if there’s a match.

Experience/feeling (it
could be the pizza you had last night at 11:30!)

3.Sign gifts –
specific enablements given to certain believers for the purpose of
authenticating or confirming the gospel message as it was proclaimed before
the Bible was written in total – they are:
revelations/miracles/healings/tongues/interpretation of tongues.

The sign gifts had a unique
purpose as they gave the apostles credentials…to let people know that these
men were speaking the truth of God…to confirm the newSscriptural revelations
God was giving to His people in the first century.

Acts 2

43And fear
came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

I
Cor. 13:8-10

Whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be
tongues, they shall cease; whether
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

The
only perfect thing on earth today is the inerrant, infallible Word of God.Once the canon was closed (scripture completed by 100 AD) then that
which was in part…sign gifts, ceased.Even toward the end of the Apostle Paul’s earthly ministry, we see
his miracles and sign gifts and powers begin to wane, and eventually, cease
altogether.For example:

I
Tim. 5

23Drink no
longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often
infirmities.

Paul
says, I know you’ve been having trouble w/ your stomach, son, and it’s ok to
use something for medicinal purposes to help.(Why not just heal him?)

II
Tim. 4

20Erastus
abode at Corinth: but Trophimus
have I left at Miletum sick.

Even
in church history, beginning in the 2nd century and on, the
church fathers, including the greatest of all historians like Augustine,
never mention the sign gifts except to say that they had indeed ceased as
predicted.

It’s
important to remember that the sign gifts were always intended for the Jews.

I
Cor. 14

21In the
law it is written, With men of
other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all
that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. 22Wherefore tongues
are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not:
(this is a direct quote from Is. 28)

Since
the time of Moses, the Jews have always demanded that God’s power be
authenticated thru signs and miracles.Jesus worked miracles and signs of His credentials in the presence
and for the benefit of the Jews, those He came to save.

John
10

37If
I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.38But if I do, though ye believe not
me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father
is in me, and I in him.

When the church unfolded,
and God began to put it together in the 1st C., God again
appealed to the Jews w/ signs and miracles…and in every instance in the book
of Acts where tongues is mentioned, it happened in the presence of the Jews,
and for their benefit.

After the rapture, the
Bible teaches that once the Gentile church is removed from the earth, God
will again begin to deal w/ the nation of
Israel.And in preparing them for Christ’s 2nd coming, and the
establishment of His earthly kingdom, again, signs and miracles will again
appear.But it’s all part of
God’s dealings w/ the Jews.

Let’s investigate tonite
one of the sign gifts, the gift of tongues…and as Joe Friday would say, Just
the facts, ma’am!Not my
opinion, or even my interpretation, just what the Bible says.

The Bible gives us an
explanation of the gift of tongues, and then teaching on the administration
of the gift of tongues.

1.Explanation

Here’s some questions
people ask:

Are tongues an ecstatic
heavenly language understood only by God?

Are tongues to be used in
prayer for personal edification?

In public church services?

How?Why?When?What does it mean?

Definition of tongues /
Demonstration of tongues

Not my definition, or
Baptist def., but Bible definition:

Tongue in NT is translated
from 2 Greek Words which are used interchangeably.(glossa=language / dialectos=dialect)

In both cases, these are
intelligible, identifiable languages.

Rev. 5:9

9And they
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

Rev.
7:9

9After
this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and
before the Lamb

Rev.
10:11

11And he
said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and
tongues, and kings.

In
each and every case that little word glossa is translated tongues, and is in
clear reference to an identifiable language.

Acts
2

4And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5And there
were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under
heaven. 6Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came
together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in
his own language.

Are
the tongues mentioned in I Cor. Different than these we’ve looked at in Rev.
and Acts?No.It’s the same Greek word, glossa.But in I Cor. 14 a little word is inserted, “unknown” tongue.

If
someone were to stand up tonite and begin to speak Swahili, how many would
understand?Raise your hands?So, to you it would be an unknown tongue.

Notice also, that the word is in italics, added by KJV translators for
clarity.The word is not found
in the original Greek documents…and so, do we build an entire doctrinal
belief upon 1 word that even the translators admit is not there?

Look
at the context, I Cor. 14:21

This
is another quote from Is. 28, a reference to the Assyrian tongue, or
language.God was predicting
that Israel would be
taken captive and that they will hear men speak w/ another language and
understand it…but it’s a reference, of course, to an intelligible,
identifiable, discernable existing language.

That’s tongues defined.Now, Tongues demonstrated:

Acts 2

6Now when
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded,
because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7And
they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not
all these which speak Galilaeans? 8And how hear we every man in
our own tongue (dialectos), wherein we were born?

What
an incredible miracle.Every man
heard not only in their own language, but their own dialect, even!

From
the north like my wife:you guys need
to get saved!

Georgia:y’all need born’d again!

Missouri:yuins…..

New Mexico:vamos al Jesus! Undele!

Next
instance of tongues is in Acts 10 to the Gentiles.Is it any different now?

Please undestand this:Peter in
Acts 10 had just preached to Cornelius, the first Gentile ever to hear the
Word and respond by being saved.
That was a big question in those days, “can gentiles get saved?”God had to give the Jews a sign to prove to the Jews that they indeed
can be saved.

Acts
10

44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word. 45 And they of the
circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
46 For they heard them
speak with tongues, and magnify God.

Are
the tongues mentioned here the same tongues in Acts 2?Are they identifiable, intelligible, discernable languages spoken by
people on earth… or was it incoherent babbling/jibberish? (I don’t mean to
be disrespectful).

Let’s
let Peter answer that…

Acts
11

15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at
the beginning… 17 Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto
us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could
withstand God?

(5-10
years between each of 4 instances in Acts…not common!)

In
Acts, tongues were a supernatural ability to speak in a foreign language.It’s the same word as tongues in Rev.The same as in I Cor. 14.

If
that gift of tongues from back then was the tongues being practiced today,
we would rejoice and accept it gladly!Think of the time and money we would save if our missionaries didn’t
have to go to language school!

Look
at what Paul said in I Cor. 14:18

They say that in Corinth, a trade city, there would be perhaps
50 language groups at any given time…and Paul could preach to all of them,
miraculously!

That
was all explanation of the gift of tongues…now the
administration of the gift of tongues:

v. 39“forbid not…” This is often quoted, out of context.Clearly, there was a gift of tongues…I’m thankful for it!The problem was, it was being grossly mismanaged.Remember now that the church at
Corinth was the most carnal, worldly church of that
time, the 1st century.The entire letter of I Cor. was written by Paul to the church as a
blistering rebuke of their problems.And it’s full of irony and sarcasm!I get a kick out of churches who want to pattern after
Corinth.
If there’s any church we don’t want to pattern after, it’s
Corinth!

Ch.
5:immorality

6:taking each other to court

7:disregarding sanctity of marriage

11:getting drunk...at church…during Lord’s supper!

14:still rebuking and correcting them…this time for their mis-management
of the gift of tongues…so, Paul lays down some strict management rules for
the gift.(Under inspiration!)And these rules are grossly disregarded by the modern tongues
movement.

1.Not for
self-edification

v. 2This is one of their proof verses as a prayer language…when actually,
this verse is saying, with much sarcasm, how futile it is to speak in
tongues w/out an interpreter.

I
Pet. 4:10

10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to
another,

I
Cor. 12:7 (turn)

If a
spiritual gift is not used to profit the whole body, it is not of God.You’re just talking to yourself (self-edification), or to God…who
doesn’t need edifying!

This
completely shoots in the foot the idea of a prayer language…something never
mentioned in the scriptures (like Purgatory).It’s not there!

In
conclusion, take the verse, “by their fruits ye shall know them”.The verse is talking about false prophets, and certainly I wouldn’t
want to call any of these good people false prophets…but we can apply that
principle of the fruits to anything, or any movement.

Let’s
ask a question…a very valid question:What has the modern-day tongues movement produced in the lives of
God’s people?

1.Confusion over the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling…

"Have
you been baptized by the Holy Ghost?"they’ll ask…what they really mean by that is, "Have you spoken in
tongues yet?"Most Charismatics
think the 2 are synonymous when they have absolutely nothing to do w/ each
other.

12:13We’re all baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit at the
moment of salvation.Then the
filling happens on a daily basis, as we allow it, ask for it, and feed it!

2.Confusion of spiritual gifts w/ spirituality

There’s a big difference between having a gift, and actually being
spiritual!They see it as a
proof of spirituality.

Ill.—Pensacola
revival service I was in…45 min invitation…Spirit was strong, altars were
flooded w/ repeat visitors.It
turned out that even during that meeting week the speaker was visiting
prostitutes.Hard to
believe/understand?Not when you
remember that spiritual gifts have nothing to do w/ spirituality!

3.Confusion about power of Pentecost…which was for getting people saved…not
speaking in tongues!The big
deal w/ Pentecost was that 3,000 were saved, the tongues were incidental!

4.A stronger ecumenical movement

It
has never been God’s intention to unite all religions of the world,
regardless of their doctrine.
(In OT, God constantly tried to get His people to separate from other belief
systems!)

Yet,
millions of people from all different belief systems are leaving their
churches and uniting in Charismatic churches.And what is the unifying factor that brings many different belief
systems together into Charismatic churches?Is it deity of Christ?/blood atonement?/salvation by grace thru
faith/no!It’s an experience!"We’ve all had this experience!"

Unity
is to be based upon doctrine, not experience.

5.Divisive

Local
churches are to be filled w/ unity and love.

God
is the one who multiplies and adds/Satan divides and subtracts.

Their
proven track record in churches like ours, is splitting churches…get a
strong foot hold, then take over…and people like you and me finally
leave…building and all…or, they leave w/ enough people to start their own
place.

You
check out the history of any charismatic church you like…you’ll likely track
it back to a church like this one (originally)

6.Holy Spirit put
into a place of prominence and attn. He doesn’t want!

Remember, this is not a message of hate.Any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine.But this is a big question people ask, and there are some big
ramifications to the church that lets doctrine slide in these areas.If you want to grow rapidly these days, there are several methods:

A
quick and seemingly effective way is to go Bapticostal…in your
music/methods/standards!Or, you
can just preach the Word!

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the newest messages, featured sermons, and some free gifts we shower on them
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